Getting Rid of Your Own Online Poker Tells

How to Develop an Internet Poker Face

Getting Rid of Poker Tells and an Internet Poker FaceThe first thing you need to do to get rid of your own online poker tells is determine if you have any tells. Then determine what they are.

In online poker games, other than the time it takes you to make a decision, everything else boils down to your playing tendencies. By playing the same types of hands the same way over and over again you are establishing tendencies that players who are paying attention can use against you. They can put you on a smaller range of hands by understanding how you have played in the past.

Preflop Raises

One of the biggest online tells and playing tendencies involves pre flop raising. Many Internet poker players alter their opening raises depending on their starting hand. For example, they will raise more with AA and KK than with any other hand.

This is a bad idea.

The way to overcome this is either raise the exact same amount with every hand no matter what it is whenever you raise. The other way is to vary your opening raises across all hands that you raise with. I find it easier to make the same size raise with any hand when I enter with a raise. This way none of my opponents can put me on a hand before the flop.

Hands You Limp With

The next area to consider is what hands you limp with and which ones you raise with when entering a pot pre flop. If the only hands you raise with from early position are aces and kings, this is an extreme tendency that may cost you money.

This is especially true as you start playing at higher levels. At low and medium level tables most players aren't paying attention. But at the higher level tables most of the players know how to play fairly well and pay attention.

The way to combat this tendency is to occasionally raise from early position with other hands. There is a fine line between raising with other hands enough to mix up your play and raising with too many hands which will reduce your chances to win. The best way is to keep track of how often you raise from each position so you know exactly how often you do so.

How to Randomize Your Preflop Play

Realistically most players won't keep track of  this accurately, so here is another way that is simple to use. If I remember correctly I first read about this in one of Dan Harrington's books.

For each position at the table compile a list of hands that you will always (or almost always) want to raise with. You can split them into early, middle, late and blinds if you don't want to do 9 or 10 different lists. Once you have these, add a group of starting hands to each group that you will occasionally raise with. For example, from early position you may want to always raise with AA, KK and QQ and the hands that you will occasionally raise with would be JJ, 10 10, 9 9, 8 8, AKs, AK and AQs.

Your list might be different, but this is pretty close to the list I use. (For those of you wondering, my list also includes a few smaller no gap suited connectors) Whenever you are dealt one of the hands you want to occasionally raise with, look at the second hand on your watch. If it is within the first 5 seconds after a minute, make your standard raise. Otherwise play the way you normally would.

Some players use the first 10 seconds after the minute. When you use the first 5 seconds, you will raise with 1 out of every 12 of your occasional hands and if you use10 seconds you will raise with 1 out of 6.

This keeps your opponents from putting you on a definite hand from your pre flop raise. Your opponents will already put you on a certain range of hands, but there is nothing you can do about that without giving up too much expected value. Every decent poker player knows that if you raise from early position you probably have a decent starting hand.

The nice thing about a hand like 8 8 or 9 9 is if the flop doesn't include anything too high, you may be able to pick up the pot uncontested on the flop just by betting. In addition, the times you hit a set you have a will disguised power hand that may be very profitable.

One thing to think about before you start using smaller pocket pairs from early position is many players with pocket pairs will call an early raise hoping to hit a set. The lower your pocket pair is, the more likely it is that when you hit a set an opponent can hit a larger set. When this happens you will lose a large pot. While this will happen occasionally, you increase the chance by raising with small pocket pairs, especially from early position.

Raising with Hands You'd Normally Limp With

You need to use the same type of system for hands that you usually limp with. For example, if you always limp from middle position with middle pairs and large suited connectors, you should occasionally raise with these hands.

The key point is that a limited amount of the time you need to do the opposite of what you normally do. This is the only way to keep your online tells and playing tendencies from your better opponents.

How You Play the Flop

The next area to look for your own playing tendencies is how you play after the flop.

If you always make a continuation bet after raising pre flop, your opponents will be able to use this against you. The way it usually happens is when they have a stronger hand than you do. They don't have to worry about building the pot because they know you will do it for them.

They also know that they can check raise your flop bet and have a decent chance that you didn't hit the flop and possibly force you to fold. It's also a bad idea to only bet when you improve and to check when you don't. Anything you do every time depending on the situation can be used against you.

To combat this, you can use the second hand trick mentioned above. Decide how often you want to make a continuation bet after a pre flop raise and use the second hand to make your decision. For example, you may decide that you want to make a continuation bet almost all of the time, so you always make the bet unless the second hand is within the first 5 seconds.

This way, while you usually make a bet, you won't always do it, and it will have nothing to do with the strength of your hand. This makes it next to impossible for an opponent to put you on an exact hand or even a small range of hands.

Don't go overboard with this, or you'll give up too much expected value by playing incorrectly.

One more thing is when you have a strong hand but need to make a bet to force an opponent to pay a high price to draw, you should always make the correct play. It is more important to charge them to draw than to hide your hand. If they are drawing to a flush or straight they already know your hand is better than theirs so you don't gain anything by playing around.

Eliminating Tells on the Turn and the River

You must also look at your turn and river play in the same way to see if you have developed any tendencies.

Do you always bet on the turn and / or river when you feel you have the best hand?

Do you only bet on the river when you have a made hand?

It's important to vary your play in every area of your game, especially when you are playing against other good players. But you have to tightly control how often you are making plays that don't lead to your highest expected value just to camouflage your play. If you are giving up more expected value than you are gaining by hiding your play, you are better off just playing straight ABC poker.

This page about getting rid of your own online poker tells and how to develop an Internet poker face was last updated on August 26, 2010.